I never expected a briefing to begin with a product that is being used to in place of rectal thermometers, but I guess now I can cross that off my bucket list.

Exergen is a manufacturer of non-contact temperature sensors, which are currently being used by Philips and GE Healthcare in clinical thermometers. What sets these IR temperature sensors apart, however, is their powerless thermocouple design and the fact that they contain no active components. These features of the microIRt/c sensor family also mean that there is no drift so they don’t require calibration, and their extremely small size is thanks in part to a collaboration with NASA that netted a form factor about half the size of comparable sensors on the market. For these reasons, they have found home in a variety of industrial and OEM environments.

[Figure 1 | Exergen microIRt/c sensors contain are powerless, completely passive IR temperature sensors that come in a small package for a variety of industrial/embedded applications.]

At the show, Bram Stelt and Bob Harris also explained the customization side of the company’s business called Sensoramics, whereby Exergen design engineers work with clients to design ruggedized, thermally-efficient packaging for applications with specific requirements, for example to help eliminate IR influence in industrial printing.

[Figure 2 | Exergen Sensoramics enables OEMs to customize sensor packaging for varying application requirements.]

Oh, and, in case you were worried. Don’t be. The briefing didn’t entail an interactive thermometer comparison.

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